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September 18, 2004

For Brothers and Sisters looking to relocate, check out the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St.Paul

This article is simply to help assist our brothers and sisters who are contemplating a relocation and seek information on the best options available. What people desire in a city will no doubt vary from person to person. However, economics, schools, quality of life, weather diversity are generally important to most folks. Thus, I would like to give provide information concerning what I think is an outstanding metropolitan area to work, live and raise a family. That metro area is the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

As a little background, I am currently living in the Twin cities area. After leaving Michigan, I lived in Atlanta for a few years, before settling here after some relative relocated here to start a business. I moved here in 1995 and experience culture shock after Detroit and Atlanta. Being the Pan African that I am, I was not impressed with the lack of black population in such a large Metropolitan area. Besides that, it was so cold that it made your toes curl…for all the wrong reasons…if you know what I mean.

I never figured on staying here more than a year…then I was out…so I thought. I had come here after my senior brother moved here at the request of our cousin who had moved here to start a business. I was fresh out of college and decided to give it a try. Now, its 2004 and I need a dang good reason to find another city to live. I still think about moving back to Michigan, but after living here, it would have to be to help out family, before I could move back there.

When I moved here I felt like superman. The gravity on Krypton was such that when Superman found a planet where the gravity was much less, it gave him super strength relative to the indigenous to the planet. That is how I felt after moving here from Michigan. Everything seems so much easier and less stressful. This was especially true in regards to the sisters. I won’t lie…my game was weak when I lived in Michigan, with all the ballers and hustlers sporting their “gators” and dressing on point. You see in Michigan, thugs were smooth and dressed on point to impress. It was not all that crazy thugged out hard core look like you see on the West Coast. Brothers who would kill you in a second…could not be differentiated from a regular player..but I am digressing. Anyway…my game was weak cause I couldn’t compete. But in Minnesota, I got play like I never got play before…probable due to the fact that for some strange reason, most of the brothers here are chasing white women. All I had to tell a sister is that I didn’t date white women and they wanted me to propose to them.

All that is fine, but the real deal about the Twin Cities is that it had the second largest percentage increase in the black population in the country, behind only Las Vegas. About 20% of the 200,000 plus blacks that now live in the area are native Africans. The area has one of the largest concentrations of Africans in the nation numerically, plus it has the largest percentage African population in the country, as a percentage of the total black population. Being a Pan African…I loved this…Especially them Ethiopian sisters…talk about grace and feminity…and traditional…man!

In regards the cities, there are extremely clean and well kept. When I first arrived and was looking for a place to stay, I went to check out these nice looking town homes in the black community on the North side of town. Come to find out…it was a housing project. I could not believe it. I had never seen a housing project that nice.

In regards to jobs, this is a white color community that is the headquarters of no less than 14 fortune 500 companies. The states unemployment rate is consistently a percentage or more below the national average, regardless of the economic conditions of the nation. The per capita income is in the top ten for cities in the nation. There is lots of wealth in the area and local business leaders are very philanthropic. It has one of the best cultural offerings per capita in the nation. Plays, symphonies, and all three major league sports.

The metropolitan area is estimated to be around 3,000,000 in 2004. Biggest drawback…long cold winters…but with global warming…my last for winters have been much warmer than my first four. A couple years back it was 60 degrees in December.

Everything is relative and constrast is paramount to how we feel about a certain something. For those have lived in the Twin CIties all their life or for many years, they see the cities problems differnt from those who come from places much worse. I go back to Michigan about 4 times every year, because most of my siblings and parents still live there. In doing so the constrast makes me appreciate the Twin Cities even more. I have traveled to many places in the USA...and few can combine it all like here...except for the long cold winters (black folk are tropical people and do not like the cold). When I first moved here...I often her white folks lament that they liked the cold because it kept the "riff raff" away. There is two ways that I interpeted that. ONe, there is less crime duing the winter as opposed to the summer, for obvoius reasons. Two, the perception that black folk commit more crimes and have a aversion to the cold implied that "riff raff" approximated black people.

What has been your experince dealing with Ethiopians? I find them to be kinda of clanish and some don't think they are black. I wanted my childern to African names, so I named my youngest daugther after a hospital adminstrator's sister, when I was stationed in Germany.

I was in Germany when the Eritreans got independance from Ethiopia. At first I thought they were all one people, until I found out about the Amharic, Eritrea or Oromo ethinic groups.

Ethiopians find it surprising and amusing that an African-American would take the time to learn to speak Amharic, Tigrinya, or Orominga, although I am not fluent in those languages.